Ford EcoSport : Official Review

This is a discussion on Ford EcoSport : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Originally Posted by sup?
The dealer has called me and told me that my Ecosport Trend Diesel is in their ...

The dealer has called me and told me that my Ecosport Trend Diesel is in their yard. I am going to inspect the car tomorrow and give the documents for registration as well. I am hoping to take delivery by Friday

About the insurance, I am taking my own insurance and need some guidance from those who have done this Which is the best plan and what all should I look at? Thanks in advance for any help

I took my own insurance from Landmark Insurance Agency for Bharti Axa - bumper to Bumper for 21,387/-
Ford Dealer was asking for same for 33+k

Mods, pls suggest if its ok to share contact details of the Insurance Agency !!!

I have booked the Ecosport Titanium 1.5 Diesel on 13th July at Lethangi ford, Bangalore and the SA told me a couple days later that my booking No is 502. He said s

Sorry, hit the submit button too early on this post. The SA told me that 120 ecosport a have already been dispatched and thus my waiting count is 380 odd .Should I believe this ? Should I be asking for any othe kind of waiting list number ? Any member here who has booked at Lethangi has any advice on this please ?

Okay, here's an update from the Accessories market. I haven't seen it personally but told that Ecosport's Tyre Covers are available in the After-Market for 6k. Price told for Karol Bagh Market in Delhi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeKay

Just because a car rattles, you'd say it isn't a quality car? Even an Audi, BMW or a Lambo rattles.
I personally have been driven in BMWs and Audis that rattle. The steering rattle issue was an unforeseen manufacturing flaw, which has been sorted out now.

PS - We're going OT now. Let's end this here.

Much needed advice here DeKay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pgsagar

I haven't heard of a Audi, BMW, Lambo rattling. But i20 steering rattles are well chronicled. You may search and see. If you consider it nothing then it is your wish. Consider whatever you want to consider it. But I would not consider it a good car. It is my opnion. Are you trying to force me to like i20 or say good things about i20? Sorry. I would not. Surprising how you find it a minor issue. It can be hazardous.

Hazardous? I find this hard to digest and funny, considering I just saw my i20 clocking 67,900 kms with 2 replacements of Yoke Spring and Urethane Pad for fixing the Rattle issue. Hazardous, it's just a Steering Column thing and not some Nuclear Rod, the same car is driven on the best and worst roads with equal comfort and has endured potholes at high speeds, no issues whatsoever.

I haven't heard of a Audi, BMW, Lambo rattling. But i20 steering rattles are well chronicled. You may search and see. If you consider it nothing then it is your wish. Consider whatever you want to consider it. But I would not consider it a good car. It is my opnion. Are you trying to force me to like i20 or say good things about i20? Sorry. I would not. Surprising how you find it a minor issue. It can be hazardous.

I think we have been to harsh in our responses to pgsagar's argument.

Clearly, pgsagar's measure of quality is the statistical significance of "abnormal behavior" in cars. In other words, the possibility of many owners facing the same issue. So far, the car has been performing as expected, no issues have been reported. Therefore, it's not good on our part to make inferences on quality levels just based on price.

Of course, there are design quirks / spec levels that you may like / not like. But when you pay 5.6 lacs to buy the "bare bones" car, you know what you're getting into. Ford has indeed cut corners to offer the iconic 5.6 lac price-tag, and these are corners in terms of spec, ideally not in quality. Let me list a few:

The 5.6 lac 1.5 Ambiente

does not have ABS/airbags, yet has bluetooth with 4 speakers. One is simply insane if one buys a 1.2 ton car without ABS / airbags.

does not have rear-parking sensor - this is a must considering poor rear visibility is quite poor

I can go on (no 60:40 split rear seat etc) but after buying this car without ABS/air-bags, I'm not going to drive faster than 30kmph anyways, so why worry about luggage room?

My conclusion is this. The insane 5.6 lac price-tag is just to get eyeballs and footfalls. The bare-bones car is not something you should buy, nor Ford should sell. When you come up the variants worth buying, the pricing isn't insane anymore. And it's too early to make any argument on quality simply because there are not enough customers and not enough incidents to warrant such an argument. I agree there's an "element of trust" one is placing on Ford when one becomes an early adopter, and maybe you cannot allow yourself to do that, and you're right in expressing your concern. But maybe you should have framed the argument around trust, not in terms of expected quality. And please stop looking at the 5.6 lac variant. It's simply not worth buying.

i20? You will see many posts dedicated to steering rattle issues. I would not rate i20 a quality car.

I have owned one for 4 years and 45K kms. I have had my i20 steering rattle too. But after having driven it for 45K kms I can say that its not hazardous at all. I have driven it over the worst possible roads and yet there is no rattle anywhere else. If i20 is not a quality product then none of the hatches are quality products.

I had taken a brief test drive of the Ecosport (diesel) on Saturday while our Fusion was being serviced. My impressions:-

Not surprised at the toppling incidents. Almost half of the people who were waiting, for the test drive, looked like first time car buyers with very basic car driving skills (must have just graduated from Driving school). And the balance were the "Guntewari" types (sold lots of land & looking for flashy top end diesels.). The SR was insisting on sitting in the front passenger seat & had his hand on the handbrake- ready for emergency braking.!! Had to soothe him to relax while I was driving.

No sarcasm or offence really -only these categories are buying new cars now - just look at my dillema. After driving the car I felt it an ideal replacement for our Santro AT. However the Santro is fitting our city driving requirements perfectly, so no need to upgrade. Ecosport does not fulfill our need for a replacement for the Fusion, mainly because the family complained of the back seat space. So we will drag out our purchase decision for a couple of months for now, possibly till something more suitable comes along.

My driving impressions vis a vis the Fusion:-
1. Seating is much more ergonomic & higher up.
2. Visibility is good. Did not find the A pillar so much of a problem.
3. Even though it was a diesel the noise was not very evident. Would say cabin was quieter than the petrol Fusion. Slight vibration was there.
4. The engine was able to pull cleanly - quite suitable for a sedate city drive.
5. Ride quality was good and did not feel some minor potholes I went over.
Sway & yaw did not seem bad - better than my Santro & much better than the Scorpio. Cannot comment on high speed ride as we were just pottering around.
6. Steering was light & the vehicle was willing to change direction easily. One could say it was twitchy. Possibly the reason why novices must have given excess steering input & flipped the car.

Well, not definitely in all cases. From the early adopters of XUV500, a lot of them have been doing everything but enjoy their vehicles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pgsagar

i20? You will see many posts dedicated to steering rattle issues. I would not rate i20 a quality car.

When we speak of just the steering issues many i20s have faced, then the statement is valid (that i20 is not a holistically quality product).

Quote:

Originally Posted by anilkumar

Isn't Yeti over prised ?

is it the best built product ??

Yeti isn't really over priced. The perception that it is over priced is because of equating price to size. And there is no doubt that the Yeti is one of Skoda's best built product (and in the c-suv segment too).

Quote:

Originally Posted by shivasuma

If i20 is not a quality product then none of the hatches are quality products.

Incorrect statement. You simply cannot compare the quality of the i20 with that of the SKoda Fabia (confidently, at least those built prior to the arrival of localised units).

Not surprised at the toppling incidents. Almost half of the people who were waiting, for the test drive, looked like first time car buyers with very basic car driving skills (must have just graduated from Driving school). And the balance were the "Guntewari" types (sold lots of land & looking for flashy top end diesels.). The SR was insisting on sitting in the front passenger seat & had his hand on the handbrake- ready for emergency braking.

Good observations. By the way which dealership did you visit? I am yet to spot an EcoSport in Pune roads. But this was not the case with Honda Amaze.

And it's too early to make any argument on quality simply because there are not enough customers and not enough incidents to warrant such an argument.

I agree. People have this image of the Ecosport being a VFM buy at 5.6 lakhs. Even the i20 base is available for about 6.3 ex showroom as far as I remember and that has more equipment than the base Ecosport.

The variants worth buying for the Ecosport are atleast 8 lakhs and above and that's a decent price for vehicle this size. I think everyone has gotten carried away with the SUV tag but they're not realising how small the car in reality is.

Good observations. By the way which dealership did you visit? I am yet to spot an EcoSport in Pune roads. But this was not the case with Honda Amaze.

Went to Planet Ford - Satara Rd. Their Ecoboost demo vehicle had been sent to Kolhapur & the Fiesta At was also out. Looks like Ford has concentrated only on diesel production. Sales people were not having any info on when the 1.5 petrol & AT would be available.

Incorrect statement. You simply cannot compare the quality of the i20 with that of the SKoda Fabia (confidently, at least those built prior to the arrival of localised units).

Well, even the fabia had problems and major ones. The 1.4 engine which they had to stop. And the 1.4 diesel isn't exactly refined. So yours is also an incorrect statement. And the current one, the less said about the 3 -pot engine, the better. Yes, the quality of interiors might be better but as a whole even the fabia has had its problems.

That is why ford could secure 17000 bookings in a short time! It looks like Eco sport is going to taste success as Renault did with Duster.
Interestingly, there are at least 5-8 mini SUVs are expected over next 2 years.

Let me try change the direction in which the wind is blowing. A business acquaintance of my banker bro bought a EcoSport from the first lot, & coincidentally sold off his old Duster. As per him, who has put up sufficient miles on the EcoSport as well, it is a better handler at higher speeds (read 100+ kmph) as compared to the Duster... despite the lighter steering on a Ford.

The Fiesta is priced high not without a reason. Ford initially didn't want to bring the Fiesta to India as they thought that they would not be able to price it well for the Indian market. This report was there in Autocar mag. Eventually, they did launch it with a boot, but we all know how they had to bite the dust for not de-engineering it.

Now, coming to ecosport, which share a lot of parts with the Fiesta, should cut some corners to price it at almost 2L lower than the Fiesta.

Polo, i20 and Jazz have acceptable quality. The initial i20s sold in India were surpluses from exports to Europe.